Lith Printing
In late 2025 I started making lith prints from some of my negatives. These are scans from (mostly) 8×10 inch prints made in my darkroom.
Lith printing is an alternative photographic process, which uses very long exposure and development times, and a very dilute lithographic developer on photographic paper, to produce unique prints with a distinctive, almost archaic, appearance. The image emerges very slowly, in the developer tray, before suddenly and exponentially reaching a point at which the print must be visually judged ready to be quickly snatched out stopping any further development. Different photographic paper emulsions produce characteristically different results. Very few modern papers will respond to lith developing and so all of the paper used for these prints is old, expired or fogged and is unusable for conventional printing. The selection of paper, along with developer ratios and exposure times, influence the resulting tonal hue, dynamic contrast and grain structure of each print. Absolute consistency, from one print to the next, is near impossible, which results in each print being unique rather than one of an edition. Alternate versions of some prints can be seen here.
This is a landscape shaped by the Industrial Revolution. Lead mining and processing left scars which have in time become an important part of its defining characteristics. As we come to terms with life in the post-apocalyptic world of Climate Collapse, I want to reflect on the technological progress that brought us to this point. The process of making these prints has relied upon the re-animation of retired or redundant technology, materials and personal knowledge.